Yulia Navalnaïa, who vowed to continue the fight for her husband Alexei Navalny, who died in a Russian prison, accused Vladimir Putin on Saturday of taking the deceased's body hostage to force his mother to attend a secret funeral.
“Nine days since Putin killed my husband […]”But it turns out that killing wasn't enough, now he has taken her remains hostage, humiliated her mother to force her to have a secret funeral,” the widow of opponent No. 1 said in a trembling voice in one Online post video.
“It’s Putin […] who gives orders that say: 'Don't give it back, put pressure on the mother, break her, tell her that her son's body is decaying,'” she continues.
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For more than a week, Lioudmila Navalnaïa, the opponent's mother, has been trying to recover the remains of her son, who died on February 16 in a prison in a remote Arctic region where he was imprisoned.
According to her, the authorities imposed a condition for the return of the body that the burial would be secret. According to observers, the Kremlin feared that the funeral could become a public event, especially since Russia is organizing a presidential election in mid-March in which Vladimir Putin was expected to triumph again.
“You tortured him when he was alive, now you torture him after his death,” Ms. Navalnaïa said again.
The Russian president did not react to the death of his main critic, who served a 19-year prison sentence and survived poisoning.
The Kremlin has staged a merciless suppression of all its critics, particularly since the invasion of Ukraine two years ago today.